Mid-Morning Market Update: Markets Open Higher; Palo Alto Networks Beats Q3 Estimates

Following the market opening Monday, the Dow traded up 0.76 percent to 24,823.29 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.11 percent to 7,562.27. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.33 percent to 2,743.71.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Monday morning, the energy shares surged 1.01 percent. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras PBR, up 5 percent, and Clean Energy Fuels Corp. CLNE up 6 percent.

In trading on Monday, health care shares fell 0.02 percent.

Top Headline

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. PANW posted stronger-than-expected results for its fiscal third quarter.

Palo Alto posted adjusted earnings of $0.99 per share on revenue of $567.1 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.96 per share on revenue of $545.72 million.

Palo Alto Networks expects Q4 sales of $625 million to $635 million and earnings of $1.15 to $1.17 per share. Analysts projected sales of $618 million and earnings of $1.21 per share. The company expects FY18 sales of $2.24 billion to $2.25 billion and EPS of $3.86 to $3.89.

Equities Trading UP

American Electric Technologies, Inc AETI shares shot up 142 percent to $1.79 after the company’s M&I Electric business announced a $14 million project with a leading Engineering, Procurement and Construction firm.

Shares of Digital Ally, Inc. DGLY got a boost, shooting up 9 percent to $2.89 after the company reported that the US Patent Office has denied Axon's request to invalidate a Digital Ally patent.

Immunomedics, Inc. IMMU shares were also up, gaining 13 percent to $25.67. Clovis Oncology and Immunomedics reported a planned clinical collaboration to study combination therapies in metastatic triple-negative breast and urothelial cancers.

Equities Trading DOWN

Nektar Therapeutics NKTR shares dropped 40 percent to $54.22. Nektar and Bristol-Myers Squibb reported preliminary data for NKTR-214 in combination with opdivo for patients with Stage IV metastatic melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, and urothelial cancers.

Shares of Jounce Therapeutics, Inc. JNCE were down 32 percent to $7.64 after the company presented preliminary data from its ongoing Phase 1/2 ICONIC trial of JTX-2011 in patients with advanced solid tumors.

Vaxart, Inc. VXRT was down, falling around 17 percent to $4.34 as the company disclosed that its Phase 2 trial of teslexivir did not meet its primary endpoint.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.46 percent to $65.51 while gold traded up 0.14 percent to $1,301.10.

Silver traded up 0.54 percent Monday to $16.53, while copper rose 0.90 to $3.1265.

Eurozone

European shares were mostly higher today. The eurozone’s STOXX 600 climbed 0.41 percent, the Spanish Ibex Index rose 1.64 percent, while Italy’s FTSE MIB Index slipped 0.19 percent. Meanwhile the German DAX climbed 0.18 percent, and the French CAC 40 rose 0.28 percent while U.K. shares rose 0.63 percent.

Economics

U.S. factory orders fell 0.8 percent for April, versus economists’ expectations for a 0.5 percent drop.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The TD Ameritrade Investor Movement Index for May is schedule for release at 12:30 p.m. ET.